German law enforcement agencies have discovered another drone, allegedly linked to the attack on the Ukrainian Antonov An-124 "Ruslan" cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Several German media outlets note that more drones may have been involved in the failed attack on the Ukrainian aircraft than was initially reported: alongside the already known devices, investigators found an additional drone and explosive material.
Timeline of the incident
According to media reports, on the night of August 5 a suspicious object was found near the Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft at Leipzig Airport, prompting the temporary suspension of airport operations; it later turned out to be a drone. The third drone, reportedly, was found on the evening of August 14 in a field near the airport, in the settlement of Kabelsketal. The following day, on August 15, investigators recorded a substance at the discovery site that, according to preliminary data, could have been a residue of a hexogen-based explosive mixture. The drone itself, reportedly, was non-functional.
Position of the investigation and authorities
At the time of publication, the spokesperson for the German Federal Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the new find and the nature of the substance detected. Nevertheless, according to media reports, German authorities have already settled on the main version of events and know who specifically may have carried out the attack. Earlier, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called the incident a "new level of danger" for the country and an example of a hybrid threat, indicating that Berlin views what happened not as an accident but as a deliberate act.
Contradictory data
There are diverging versions in the public domain. After the incident, German media circulated the assumption that the Ukrainian aircraft may have been transporting ammunition, and that the drone allegedly collided in the air with another drone. The "Antonov" airline refuted these claims. It later emerged that the drone struck the most vulnerable part of the An-124's wing, meaning this was a deliberate strike rather than an accidental collision of devices. A separate discrepancy concerns the dates: the third drone, found on August 14, is described in the media as discovered "ten days" after the first, whereas nine days pass from August 5 to August 14, and the traces of explosives were recorded on August 15. Both lines of versions — the media speculation about ammunition and an "air collision" on the one hand, and the "Antonov" refutation followed by the investigation's conclusion about a deliberate strike on the wing on the other — are presented here without choosing a "correct" one, as there are no official confirming statements from the prosecutor's office yet.
What is known about the attack
The totality of reports indicates that the attack was deliberate: the drone hit the most vulnerable section of the wing of the Ukrainian An-124, and additional drones and traces of explosives were found near the airport. This allows one to say that several devices may have been involved in the incident, although the investigation's final conclusions and the identification of those responsible have not been disclosed publicly.
